Ianis Hagi has gone from making an impressive and game changing cameo off the bench to being dumped out of Rangers Champions League squad and tipped to leave the club.
All this in the space of 48 hours and now, Danut Lupu, who was a teammate of Gheorghe Hagi for the Romanian national side, has urged the 24-year old playmaker to leave.
Reported by The Glasgow Times, Lupu has insisted that calling up Ianis Hagi now would only create problems and that he has to move on from Rangers for the good of his career.
Regardless of your opinion of the Gers playmaker, he is clearly too good a player to be either sitting on the bench every week or sitting in the stands.
After missing a year through injury, he now looks in great shape and not playing games won’t be doing him any favours.
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Ianis Hagi urged to leave Rangers for Romania
Lupu feels that Ianis Hagi, with 26 caps to his name, can still be an influence for Romania, but this can’t happen whilst he wastes away at Rangers:
“He has not played recently, he is a player who can help the national team only if he plays at club level.
“I have respect for Gheorghe Hagi and I admire what he does for Ianis as a parent, but he must understand that his son cannot be called up if he is not playing for Rangers.
“It’s not like his dad, who made all the difference when he played for us. We couldn’t do without him and you cannot say that about Ianis.
“My advice to him is to leave Rangers immediately. Don’t stay where you are not wanted.
“I don’t know why he would want to stay anyway. Until he got injured he was a key player at Rangers.”
Ianis Hagi will, as he gets older, play in a deeper midfield role than the one he currently does at Rangers.
His strengths lie in his vision and passing, not in his ability to beat players one v one or dribbling.
He has a better skillset than John Lundstram for playing one of the number eight roles and you could argue that Keiran Dowell isn’t as technically gifted either.
Michael Beale looks to have made his mind up though and for all that his name might be a burden on occasion, in terms of expectation, it will be very useful in tempting other clubs to make a move.
A move that now seems inevitable.